Chapter 1: Things of the Precursors

The shop was now officially closed, albeit for less than a tenter, and the evening was slowly encroaching. Anh left the lighting crystals in the shop to cool and moved to the back office to warm the ones there, and in a fairly short time, it became filled with a yellow glow. Then he moved on to sorting out and tallying his proceedings from the day. This was all a part of his daily routine, where the relative hustle and bustle had ended and the evening quiet slowly set in. His kinfolk usually went about doing their private stuff during that time, and so he had his head all to himself for a while.

There were six stashes of coins on the counter. One was a mixed pile, which Anh used to feed the remaining five stacks, of which ones with shillings, farthings, and grosses were the largest. There was one golden ryal, albeit it was so skimmed by the criminal element that Anh counted it as three-quarters of the value of the actual coin. The last pile contained a few large silver coins, which a guest from Sorres paid with. In total, it was not the best day in recent times, but not the worst either.

A loud knock came from the main door, interrupting the counting.

-* now who that might be?* - said irritated Birdekk.

-* most likely our nordic customer came back for his translation* - replied the dominant - *go back to sleep*

-* as if we're going to miss that!* - commented Tow.

The tanai sighed soundlessly, then left the piles of money on the counter and floated to the door. The guest was expected, so there was no reason to be worried, however, just to be sure, he first peeked out through the side window to see if it was indeed Brandt. There was no surprise.

The hoomin entered the shop, exchanged the usual greetings, and then briskly went straight to the back of the shop, ignoring the disarray of coins. Anh closed and bolted the door and then followed him, suddenly feeling a bit like a stranger in his shop.

-*he looks positively weather-beaten today* - commented Greoo - *must have been a rough few days*

Indeed he seemed fatigued. His clothes were dusty and his shoes muddy. Deep creases of tiredness crossed his face and his walk was unusually heavy.

-"Rough few days?" - repeated the tanai out loud.

The nord made a dismissive gesture.

-"Nothing unusual in my line of work. Have you got it?"

The tanai disappeared for a moment into his alcove and returned with three stacks of papers levitating alongside. He carefully put them on the workbench.

-” This one” - he said, pointing at one of the stacks - “is the transcription of the original, the one here” - his finger at the middle pile - “is the translation, the last one are my notes about the translation. Words which I know not, were just translated phonetically.”

-” Example?” - inquired the hoomin

-” ‘Нанофоргэ’” would be ‘a na-no-forge’. I am certain this is not how this word would be pronounced, but cammona has its rules.”

-” Thank you. Here is...” - Brandt produced a ready-made cheque - “...the agreed sum.”

Anh took the scroll and roughly checked it for authenticity, once he made sure, he said to Brandt.

-” Thank you, Sir. Always a pleasure to do business.”

The hoomin took the pile of translated texts and inquired whether he could read through it right there and then. Anh nodded and led him to the reading pedestal. Brandt immersed himself in the translation, while the tanai finished counting money and tidying up the shop. It took him a better part of the candle and when everything was done to the required standard and the kettle was full of freshly boiled water, the bookkeeper prepared two beaten-up ceramic mugs full of herbal infusions. He tactfully cleared his throat when approaching the Nord with the drinks. The man lifted his gaze from the papers and his face lighted up slightly at the sight of the steaming mug.

-" We… I thought you could use one of those." - said Anh, correcting himself. Most hoomin reacted badly when a singular tanai called selves a 'we' - "It's a chai mixture. I bought this from the tehei in the Sheridawn's Zeim."

Brandt moved away from the reading pulpit, grabbed the mug with both hands, and took a sip.

-"Thank you kindly." - he said with a faint smile - "I needed that."

-"So, how's the progress?"

The hoomin pointed to one of the sheets of paper which were set aside on the pedestal. He cleared his throat.

-"This one here is intriguing. It seems like some kind of a list and there's an unusual set of numbers here. Anything you can tell me about this?"

Anh swallowed a mouthful of the hot drink, nodded, and then looked first at the page, then at the man with badly concealed suspicion.

-"It's… an interesting coincidence that you should ask me about this passage in particular” - he said - "as it's exactly the one that piqued my interest the most as well. It took me sometime last week to discover what it might mean. Follow me please.” - the tanai set down his mug away from the nearest book, which was a feat on its own, then floated towards one of the shelves. He searched for a couple of drips then slid out a sizable scroll -”I have read the entire thing, or as much as there was of it and I think this page describes the locations of at least three of the ‘Нанофоргэ’ things.”

This information seemed to have raised the customer's mood.

-”Do go on.”

Anh unrolled the scroll, which turned out to be a map of Maargard. Fairly up-to-date one, which he managed to acquire only a few weeks back. Hoomin nodded and raised one of his eyebrows.

-*it's a sign of admiration* - interjected Greoo - *conceited and minor but definitive*

-”Could you hand me the translation please?” - asked the tanai, then quickly scanned the received page.

- “Here.” - he said, physically pointing at a pair of numbers - “Three entries are still readable. One is ‘Нанофоргэ 67-Л2M’, then there is ‘Нанофоргэ 60-Л3M’, and lastly ‘Нанофоргэ something’. The last marking is indecipherable. Each of these has a set of numbers allocated, so we have three distinct places.”

Anh put the papers, with the one he was reading from on top of the workbench.

-” A lot of luxury goods today are marked with a consecutive number. I have assumed these would serve the same purpose.” - replied the nord scratching his chin. It made a sound similar to a washboard.

Anh frowned.

-"Rather unlikely. These numbers differ from each other by a large amount and judging by the contents of the manual, these 'Нанофоргэ' things were probably not very numerous. Otherwise, logically, we'd have a larger list than just three specimens. No, I should think these are a form of directions… coordinates if you like."

-"But… they're just a pair of numbers?" - Brandt shook his head.

-” Not merely a pair of numbers, sir!”- scoffed Anh -” It took a lot of referencing and combined knowledge of a… well, a few scientists, but I am quite sure those are spherical coordinates. Sathor is a sphere. We know that from the ‘Vihrs’ Wisdom’.”

-” Yes. I know. Please continue.” - hastily replied Brandt with a hint of skepticism.

-” So, if Sathor is a sphere and the location is written as spherical coordinates, that location needs to be on said Sathor.” - Anh became visibly agitated and engrossed in his train of thought - ”So, the problem is that one needs to know where the coordinate system starts. We can define an infinite number of systems on a sphere. But, what makes sense?”

-” What sailors do. I think. Measure north to south.” - interjected Brandt, but the tanai was at that point already.

-” Precisely. It is called the ‘polar coordinate system’. Since the entirety of a sphere has sixteen score tiers, knowledge of which we once again owe to 'Vihrs' Wisdom', and half a sphere has eight score tiers we can safely assume that one of the descriptions will have a number falling within this range. But that is not all…”

-” Please. Mr Trawins.” - interrupted Brandt harshly - ”Spare me the lecture. Where are they?”

The copyist stopped mid-sentence and let out the air with a slight hiss.

-” Yes, I'll get straight to the point.” - he said, trying his best not to sound offended -” I have tried several places as the main reference. Started with Weidana and Graat Shor, as those are most popular nowadays. With no conclusive results. Then I went through other notable places but the results were inconclusive. Usually ending with at least one location at sea. Until I tried that with Mittah. Now it's ruined, but we have reasons to believe…” - the tanai noticed the expression of disapproval on the hoomin’s face - “Right. ‘Нанофоргэ 67-Л2M’ would be in southern Maargard, near the town of Katzburg, over here…“- tanai pointed at a place on the map -” The ‘Нанофоргэ 60-Л3M' would land in the Western Reaches, roughly here…“ - now Anh’s hand was tracing a circle directly west of Graat Koch - ”The third one would fall somewhere southeast, between Soutwals and Erendends and wouldn’t be on this map.”

A terse silence fell, as the hoomin shifted his gaze between the two points on the map, deep in thought.

-” How do you know?” - he asked finally.

-” I don’t precisely know. I hypothesize.” - Anh gestured excitedly - ”At the moment it's merely what we call a working theory in preliminary stages, but it seems sound so far and there are other proofs that contribute to that. For example, my associates pointed out that the site of ‘67-Л2M’ coincides with the location of what we know as 'the ancient Goblin Kingdom' or, more precisely, the site of the big battle during the First Vhirzug, which the hoomin won.”

-” Did it make sense? Having something in the middle of beast-infested forests? Assuming the legends are true…” - muttered Brandt absentmindedly, as if he was talking to himself - "But then again maybe they weren't there before the Cataclysm. Or the 'forges' were built to help fight them?"

-” That is entirely possible.” - Anh was somewhat disappointed that the hoomin didn’t share his enthusiasm -” Without knowing for certain what a ‘Нанофоргэ’ is, we can't answer these questions. It might have been the best place to have one or two there."

-" What about the others?"

-" Well, the one in Southwals is in a very inaccessible…"

-" Sorry, I'm really tired. I meant other cities." - interrupted Brandt, pinching the bridge of his nose - "You chose Mittah as the reference, you said. Maybe Paarg or Mosvok would bring better results?"

Now Anh almost felt insulted. It required some nudging from his kinfolk to remain calm and professional.

-" Sir, my assistants have referenced every well-known ancient city, and some which are only suspected." - he said finally in an offended tone - "The results were… inconsistent. Mittah offered the only set of coordinates where all three ‘Нанофоргэ’ were positioned on land and in a somewhat accessible location."

Brandt raised his hands.

-" Right, right, my apologies. I had no reason to doubt you." - he then closed his eyes, as if he was trying to recall something - "You… mentioned a couple of other things you wanted to research in the texts… so, anything else?"

Anh switched from offended to overly excited in the blink of an eye.

-" Yes! There is one thing! We haven't had the chance to work on this yet, as we need to consult a botanist, but the initial information leads us to believe that a plant, which we have hitherto been using as a mild food seasoning, could have healing properties! Not the leaves, mind you, but the fruit." - the tanai then looked at the hoomin, noticing an confused look in his eyes and his voice trailed off. He coughed - " But the work is only in its inception, so… and I'm sure you would not find it as interesting as I do."

-" Yes, I can see." - Brandt's lips widened in a half smile as he started collecting the papers with translation - " More interesting than ancient precursorial forges, it would seem."

-" Uh, maybe not, 'more' interesting, but certainly on par…"

Hoomin rolled up the documents and stuffed them in his satchel

- " Can I leave the transcripts with you for a couple of days? I didn’t bring a bag large enough."

-” Sure” - replied the tanai, Nord nodded in response.

-* do you think he left those to have a reason to come back? *- mused Tow as they were leading Brandt to the exit

-* don’t be silly * he isn’t the kind of person who needs a pretense to come to you with business *- quickly replied Greoo, just when they were locking the doors.

-*whatever he is, our business with him has concluded both for today and in general*- said Birdekk -*thus we ought to return to our normal routine. For example. I’m hungry.*

The variunity agreed, as they all were.